So close to spring

Let's just set March Madness aside for a second. You know I am totally enthralled with that and concered that only two of my final four teams remain. And one of those is my beloved Jayhawks who have a tough game coming up tonight. Let's just pretend like I'm not worried about that.

Cause what I'm really thinking today on this 60 degree day is how much I want to get outside and dig in the garden. Cause photos like these from Better Homes and Gardens are calling at my heart. In all honesty, there is a decent chance I'll leave work early today and end up at my favorite spring location, Family Tree Nursery. 

This year many of my bulbs didn't come up. We're talking like maybe 10-20% of the tulips we planted two-three years ago are making another appearance this year. Who do they think they are? Don't they know that I love flowers more than chocolate?! Here's what I'm thinking...

1. Compost
• Go at the gardens with some compost. I would love to start making my own this year, but we'll see. Want to set some realistic goals here.
2. Bulbs
• Fill in some of the bulbs that have disappeared. I know that not all bulbs come back every year, but we gotta fill in some holes. I love a good grape-smelling iris, and don't tell the little yellow pretties, but I'm not totally in love with daffodils. I think I want to stick to tulips and hyacinth. Did you know you can plant bulbs in the spring? Cause you can. The trick here is that you have to plant ones that have already sprouted. In other words, buy potted flowers. Not the bulbs themselves.

• Pots
• Fill some pots with pansies and pretend like you love them. You don't, but you do love the color. Besides, if we have freakish Kansas weather and it starts to freeze again, pots can come inside.
• Peonies. Get over it.
• Stop kicking myself for not planting that peony plant in the fall. I can't plant peonies in the spring so I need to stop crying and move on with my life.
• Hostas. Give in.
• Fill in the side garden with hostas. Even if they aren't the prettiest plants out there, hostas are reliable in shade and sometimes even in sun. I just need to own it.

• Be content. Again.
• Stop complianing about the giant, ugly evergreen shrubs in the front. As much as I would love for them to turn into boxwoods and liacs, they aren't going to.
• Budget.
• Gardening is not cheap. So I need to budget for it. And convince hubs that I will stop spending money on clothes and will use in on the garden instead. And then actually stick to that budget.

This is just a starting point. I have wishful ideas for herbs and veggies and luscious daisies and everything else that is wonderful in the world, but I'm trying to take it one step at a time. Wish me luck! And if you want to come hang out in the garden with me, I'd love that :-)

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My happy place

A few months ago, read first weekend of February, hubs and I were out outside enjoying 70 degree weather and noticing the little tulip sprouts. Spring was so close!! We were both giddy with excitement! But then he stopped.

"Wait. This means we have to buy more flowers. Doesn't it?"

"Why yes, it does."

So trying to be the responsible wife that I am. Wish I was. Try to be. I planted seeds. I planted alyssum, zinnias, dianthus, and some herbs like basil, cilantro, and lavender. Guess what? They are growing! Well, most of them. The dianthus and lavender didn't stand a chance, but all the others sprouted beautifully! I put them all in the ground about two weeks ago. They are enjoying it there.

But of course I still need- correction- want more. So I end up here. The nursery. My happy place.

Row after row of gorgeous plants.

"It's my home, my family... my life..." - Movie trivia! Kate, this one is for you :-)

So naturally I stocked up. Holly, roses, a hydrangea, delphinium, salvia, phlox, lobelia, and creeping jenny to name a few.

Dont worry. It's cheap. Question mark? No, it's not. But I love love love flowers, so it's worth it.

If I had to pick something to do for a living other than what I'm doing now, I'd guess it would be flowers. Can some one teach me how to garden better? And how to make arrangements? And how to afford it all? :-)

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St Louis Pictures... as promised

 

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life in the spring

This spring there seems to be a pattern in the air. 


Life

The warm weather has arrived sooner than normal.

I read the Hunger Games series.

My wonderful neighbors had baby number two.

A co-worker lost his mother-in-law unexpectedly to a stroke.

Friends from college and from church are pregnant.

A dear friend's friend suffered a series of strokes. She is 32.
The doctor says she won't recover.

I get to be a bridesmaid in the wedding of a great friend.

Dear Spring,

Thanks for reminding me about the cycle of life and death. 
I need it. We all do. 

Grateful,
Me

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rainy night

It's a rainy day, It's a rainy day
Its raining outside and I can't go out to play
Why do we need the rain, anyway?

We need rain because my tulips and daffodils started coming up the first weekend in February. Saturday I bought 8 or so packets of seeds to start the garden. They haven't gone down yet, but the rain is just preparing the ground.

I also love rainy days and nights because it just makes for coziness.

Last night I wanted to have a night in with pizza, a glass of wine, and a chick flick- Pride and Prejudice specifically- but all o' my friends were busy tonight and I couldn't find Pride and Predjuice andywhere. Womp womp. So pup and I ended up cuddling on the couch with banana pancakes and hot tea. This is his "can we go plaaaaay nooooww???" face. I thought about opening the bottle of wine for myself, but decided that might be too pathetic.

Then I started in on the Hunger Games. I had to give up on Water for Elephants halfway through. It was just not for me. I read the Kindle "sample" (first 20 pages) and ordered it in the mail. The paperback was cheaper than the eBook so I'll be waiting for the mail man tomorrow.

Missing my bestie...

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Valentines Day

What is the best part about Valentine's Day?

So many wonderful things to choose from!

Time with my bestie

Chocolate

Flowers

Love songs

And as if those four things don't make me giddy enough...

Heart shaped everything 

Donuts for breakfast

I didn't eat any though

Yes I did. But only one.

Okay fine maybe I had one and a half.

The color pink

But this year I don't get to spend time with my bestie. 

It's hard to be an auditor's wife, I tell ya. 

But you know what? 

It's harder to be an auditor so I'll keep my mouth shut and be supportive.

What happens when you don't get time with your bestie? 

You replace it with equal proportions of chocolate, flowers, and love songs. 

This weekend I made some delicious brownies. 

But only baked them about halfway.
Serious fail. 

They are still good with a spoon though.

Last night I tried to make shortbread. 

I couldn't get the dough to form a ball.
Had to throw it out altogether.
Epic fail. 

 Then I tried to make "Bleeding Heart Cupcakes"

(Read: Chocolate cupcakes with strawberry filling and a strawberry buttercream frosting)

I didn't have the coupler I needed to put in the filling. 

It kinda went everywhere other than the center of the cupcakes. 

But I forged through.

Then I ran out of sugar halfway through the frosting. 

But I had worked too hard and couldn't give up 

so I went to the store and bought more sugar at 11pm on a Monday. 

Don't judge. 

The consistency of the icing suffered because of the time gap. 

Whatever. It still went on top. 

In summary, the cupcakes survived. 

They could be way better, but they could also be worse I guess. 

Either way, they satisfy my need for chocolate and other sugar on V-Day. 

And the donuts didn't hurt either...

So let's get to the point already:

1. What is YOUR favorite thing about valentines day?

2. What is your favorite love song?

("Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx is currently tickling my fancy)

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"winter" weather

Yesterday it was January 30th. It was also 68 degrees outside. My thoughts on the matter? I wish the midwest would give me a nice blanket of snow. But if it's not going to snow, 68 degrees is the next best thing.

Wanna hear something funny though? Last weekend my bestie and I were outside doing something around the house. We had a conversation that went something like this.

"It's almost spring!"

I corrected him. "No dear, winter just started.Except, it looks like we might skip winter altogether this year."

His response: "Dang it! Know what spring means? We have to spend more money on plants." 

My response: **grin** :-)

Can't help it. Maybe tonight I'll sit down and plan this years garden. But what if there is no spring? What if my tulips are confused and never come up because the ground never froze? What if we have temps over 100 for weeks on end like in Texas? Please no. I'm sweating just thinking about it.

That's it. I'm moving north.

 

 

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huh?

I have been oh so very absent from the blogosphere lately. And I miss it. I couldn't even tell you the last time I looked at The Pioneer Woman or Thrifty Decor Chick. So behind!

I don't even have anything good to write about. I just wanted to tell you all that I'm alive.

I helped launch a new product line. It's called Money Express. You've never heard of it.
I have used twice the normal number of minutes on my cell phone. Or maybe three times... I hit the "twice" mark last week.
I bought a pre-paid phone.
I "posed" as a latina for an ad.
I baked a quiche.
My sister cleaned my house for me when all the cleaning companies in town were booked. You wish my sister was your sister.
I traveled to Florida, South Carolina, and Tennesee.
I bought a turnip and told the grocery store lady it was a parsnip. Or maybe it was the other way around.
I chopped a rutabega. And whatever that other thing was that I bought.
I went to the world pray-me-air... that's french for premiere... of Tom Sawyer (the ballet) at the Kauffman Performing Arts Center.
I planted more tulips.
I killed my mums.
I bought a pair of skinny jeans. And wore them in public.
I lost my luggage on a non-stop flight.
I slept in my contacts and my eyes have not forgiven me.
I stayed at the KU v. K-State game until the 4th quarter. Took some dedication.
I mistakenly used whipped cream instead of whipping cream. Big difference.

Just par for the course, ya know? Not that I've ever played golf, but I think that's what that means...

What am I even saying right now? I should stop while I'm behind.

Check back later. I'll have pictures for you or something.

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Yummy plates

These dishes are drool-worthy and ooooh soooo me!

If you need my shipping address I'm sure I could arrange for that :-)

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roses in bloom= happy wednesday

Well hello my little rose bushes

You look positively beautiful today

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what I did and did not do

Things that I did and did not do this weekend:

I DID decide to tackle the garden. The daffodils didn't bloom this year and I read that its cause they get overcrowded and you have to dig them up to separate them every five years or so. So I did. I dug up 3 of my 5.

  

 

Look at all those bulbs from just one plant! They certainly were overcrowded.

I did NOT pay attention to the fact that they are supposed to be dormant (aka. all leaves are dead) before you dig 'em up. Ooops... Bye bye daffodils! 

I DID get really irritated with the ground cloth/ weed protecting plastic that was throughout and ripped it all out with vigor. 

I did NOT clean up the mess I made. And then it rained on my mess. Ooops. 

I DID have a productive weekend with the hubster backfilling the driveway. 57 bags of soil and four trips to Lowes. It looks great. There are no "I did not" statements with this one. We worked hard and we DID it.

I DID spend my Sunday afternoon baking these cute little Easter basket cupcakes- idea courtesy of Bakerella as well as some robin's egg cupcakes. Good times. I did NOT eat a single one until after dinner. Proud aren't you? Hooowever, I did NOT touch the laundry or sweep the floor. Not even once. Ooops.

I DID enjoy deeply the sermon from church and then had a great dinner with the fam. I did NOT regret a moment of that.

I DID go to the dentist today and when he asked me if I drank soda I said "...no?..." I did NOT tell him about my sweet tooth and bad baking habits. Ooops.

And last but not least, I DID come up with some kinda terrible itchy thing all over me somethin' terrible! I did NOT get rid of it. HELP!

YOUR TURN: name one thing that you DID do and one thing that you did NOT do this weekend.

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I'm a slacker.

Yesterday I didn't have much to do at work so I left a little early and headed to the nail salon to get a pedicure with my sister.

You should feel really honored right now that I'm showing you a picture of my feet. I hate my feet.

Well, thats not entirely true.

I'm grateful for them and the function they serve,

but if I had a choice I'd trade them in for a more reliable option.

Kinda like my car.

Sincerely,

Your Ungrateful owner.

Anyway, I got a pedicure in preparation for a warm and sunny weekend.

We have a date night planned tonight (dinner and a movie- classic.) 

Tomorrow we're going to the market with friends where we'll get some fresh veggies and one or two or three armfuls of fresh cut flowers, and then we're going to transplant a tree donated by our neighbors.

Sunday we're going to StaTaFest* then to church and to my parents to celebrate the hub's bday.

Cheers to a good weekend and pink toenails!

PS- Even though I'm a slacker for leaving work early yesterday, you're a slacker too for not providing wisdom on my life-altering decision of how to de-align my six flower pictures. Sheesh... :-)

*Wanna hear a funny stats joke? I know you do. Did you know Santa once took a statistics class? He had trouble remembering which hypothesis should have the equal sign so he would keep repeating: the null hypothesis, the null hypothesis, the null hypothesis. In fact to this day you can hear him say" "Ho, Ho, Ho!" BAHAHA!

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a joco girl's troubles

Last week I tried to be crafty. I was at Half Price Books looking for a book for my roomie and a lightbulb came to me. Or a thought cloud. Or whatever. I think it was a lightbulb cause it was BRIGHT! Suddenly I knew I had to go to the gardening section, find pictures, of flowers, and frame them. I've been telling some friends lately that I needed something interesting for our living room wall to bring in a little bit 'o fun and this would be the perfect thing. So I found this great book called "Flower Pictures." Descriptive right? Its like it was made just for me. And it was $7.

Long story short:

• Flipped through the pages several times enjoying the book.
• Cringed a little as I cut out seven pictures
• Found seven wooden 8x10 frames at Target for $4 each -HOLLER! They don't even have them online, thats how much of a bargain they were.
• Went to Hobby Lobby to get mats but they were $2 each and I thought that was a little expensive for white cardboard so I drove like 5 miles to Michaels where I found them for... are you ready for this?... $2.49 each. Hobby Lobby was closed so I just bought six of them. Yes, six. All that driving must have impaired my brain cause I completely forgot how many frames I had. Whatevs. I'm not going to calculate how much I lost on that little escapade, but I'm going to pretend like it was less than the cost of my hazelnut latte yesterday.
• It snowed.
• KU lost. Oohh the pain of it all...
• I went to work on craft-therapy matting, framing, and hanging. I even used a level folks. A LEVEL WITH A BUBBLE to make sure all seven :-) pictures were perfectly straight. The pretty little crocuses, mums, roses, gardenias, peonies, etc were all smiling at me!
• Then hubster comes upstairs...

I will start by saying that I love this man dearly. And besides, he was right. He looked at my pictures and said "why are they so straight?" Everything is so symmetric in this room! I can't help it! I'm a business person.

So the question to you my, dear friends, is how do I make my six little lovelies not so straight?
I would cluster them, but our room is too long. I would hang them on pretty little ribbons, but I'm not sure thats the right move. I would put a plant on one side of them to add a little somethin-somethin, but I kill plants. (Ironic? Indeed.)

As a bonus, can someone please find me some replacement pillows? I need something cheap that will be fantastic with my new photos.

AND THEN don't you love the "and then" in stories?
Last night, a great friend of mine stopped by.
Hubby- "It's pathetic that these are the kinds of problems we have: how to hang our pictures in an interesting way."
Friend- "You have to make the world's problems your problems"
Hubby and I- Humbled. That's why we call her "friend".

Okay maybe that wasn't exactly long story short, but I'm not very good at "short." Just deal with it, people.

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opportunity costs

When your boss asks you to consider leading a project
in an industry you've never worked
in a function you think is interesting but have never done
in Philadelphia
for four months
during the spring
(which is gardening season)
when the audit busy season has just ended
by yourself...

What do you say?

Opportunity cost: The cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action.

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floral is good. contentment is better.

I love floral things. So I'm so glad they are "in" this spring just like every other spring in history. These little pillows were calling my name at Nell Hill's yesterday. Armed with a green tea chai latte, a personal fave, and forging a drizzly day, I was in need for some lovely pillows.

Like these. 

Hello dainty yellow paisley. Do I love you? Why yes, I do.

But what I do not love are their price tags. These beauties each fell in the $100- 200 range. Yikes!

So of course, Pottery Barn read my mind and emailed me this morning telling me that their pillows were cheaper and there was free shipping for a limited time. So naturally, I drooled over these beauties...

And when the roomie was being a twerp earlier (not really, but I was just trying to make excuses) I told him that if he didn't behave I would buy four of these yellow lovelies and two fun blue guys, and a handful or so of the others so that all of our couches would look like this:

Perdy, idn' it?

And then I read more of my wonderfully cozy little book called Keeping House. I really would recommend it to you all. And tonight Marge (Margaret. But I'll call her Marge.) told me:

"Instead of nurturing dissatisfaction with the shortcomings of our present home, whatever we my perceive them to be, perhaps we can turn our energies toward receiving as gifts the homes we have and to creating in them enough order and tidiness to promote convenience and peace and hospitality."

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with the spring comes the mud

Today we left the Mackster-baxter outside after lunch. He likes to be outside. He wreaks all kinds of havoc!

Today he tore open a bag of hay... or was it straw?... I think it was straw... that was meant to go inside the fieldhouse, but instead he strew it everywhere (is that the correct use of that word?) He also dug two massive holes: one because he likes to dig, and one because his friend, Kat, likes to come under the fence to play and clearly she needed a bigger hole. I'm sure her owners will not be grateful for the amount of mud that will cover her coat in the coming weeks. And finally, he destroyed more grass.

Grass is scarce at our house. We planted lots of seed last year and some of it took, but some of it was mauled by a cute little puppy who loves to play. This year, it will be a cute large dog who loves to play. Twice the size, twice the mess.

My solution: astro-turf. Or gravel. Or weeds. You can't kill weeds in a yard no matter how hard you try so maybe if we plant weeds they would stick around and prevent the mud.

Hubster's solution: Mack should never be left alone outside. His exercise should come from the dog park and walks and jogs, but he cannot be left alone outside.

Both of our solutions: Unrealistic. But I have to say that even though it was very stressful for the hub, I enjoyed coming home from a less than wonderful day of work to find muddy puppies running all over the place just having fun. Fun is such a wonderful thing :-)

So for now we will live with the mud until we come up with something brilliant. And wonderful ideas?

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On another completely secondary and unrelated note, I love the Pioneer Woman's blog. And today, I love gawking at the abundance of pancakes on display. I don't even like pancakes, but they are calling my name. Which is really odd cause the Nutella cookies she posted don't even whisper. Hm. Oh well.

Sionara!
Funny. My spellcheck didn't like how I spelled that word and the second word on the "did you mean" was "missionary." Kinda ironic in my world. 

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spring... slowly but surely... is approaching

The best part about the spring? I love so much of it, the 50 degree weather, the thunderstorms that scare the daylights out of the hubster, the rainboots I wish I had yellow polka dot ones, but I am a realist therefore I wear black, but the best best best part is the FLOWERS! I love flowers. I don't know when my love for flowers started, but let me just tell you it's been a long time.

I remember when I was sick one early spring as a child and my mom brought my sister and I each a small hyacinth plant to put beside our beds. If you know much about hyacinths you know they smell strongly. She did not appreciate the smell, so I got both of the plants all to myself and I adored the overwhelming scent. They smell more beautiful than they look, but they look like this.

To this day I love love love flowers. 

My favorite? Oh it depends on the day, but

daisies

poppies

peonies, oh my sweet peonies

 and tulips

 

are way up there.

 Last year I tried to grow a garden in our wonderful new house. I planted two shasta daisies, a rose bush, and 3 other smaller things I can't remember. Well the "three smaller things" quickly turned to dried up tumbleweeds and rolled down the hill and into the distance. The daisies withered (my mother says this is normal their first year) and the rose bush... well I haven't killed it yet. The point of this story is that I do NOT have the green thumb that I desperately wish I had! This is a very sad thing. In the late fall, my roomie and I planted 35- count 'em- 35 tulip bulbs and are waiting patiently for them to sprout through the frozen ground as my faithful daffodils have done. No I did not plant them, they came with the house so I haven't had a chance to accidently kill them yet. But the day they do, I will rejoice, and then I will spend more money on more flowers, Because there are few things that make my heart sing like flowers. That and chocolate*.

So tell me friends. What is your favorite flower? Do you garden? What are your tricks to not destroying your little lovelies? I'd love to know!

*Side note: Speaking of chocolate, I MADE IT! 5 whole days with no sweets of any kind. Not so much as a dipper of nutella on a pretzel. I'm proud of myself. But here comes the sad part. As I was leaving work today- it's officially the weekened now- I dug into a small piece of chocolate. It was wonderful. For about 5 minutes.  Then my stomach threw a fit. Not sure if it was angry that the chocolate was back or punishing me for depriving myself of it so long. Regardless, I'll have more dessert tomorrow. Because it's Saturday. And because I love sweets. :-)

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design challenged

A thought came to a head for me tonight. Isn't that phrase gross? It makes you think of a pimple doesn't it? Yes, it does. That was intentional cause I think this thought is gross. Tonight I was at a KU alumni networking thing hanging out with random people since I don't currently have a roommate. Don't ask how it came up, but the question was asked of me and the other girl at the table.

"How much do you spend on a formal dress?" 

Girl- A grand. 

Me- WHAT?!

While I maintain that is seriously outrageous, it gives you context for this conversation about style.

I'm the one that wears clothes with the tags still on them on accident, wears heels with the metal poking out the bottom, has blue dishes and curtains even though I don't like the color blue- it is just the "classic" option. Well as of late, I'm like Whatever "classic" style! I live for color!.. And function. I also live for function. For instance, I don't love the style of our couch (a little modern for my taste), but I required a couch with a firm back cause I really can't stand couches where you don't sit, you hunch, and and your spinal cord starts to melt together and the kink in your neck is pretty much permanent because it is trying to offset the pain that you're causing to the rest of your back and you spend the rest of the time on the couch trying to position your legs in such a way as to support the pain... enough on my hatred for "comfy" couches. This is about design!

I laughed with a wonderful, design-talented friend of mine tonight about the fact that we moved in, painted two rooms, hung curtains and a towel rack, and called the place "home." But lately I've been interested in home design. I want to buy all new curtains and pillows, get rugs for every room, and paint everything. I won't, don't worry, but I want to. But the thing is that even if I did it would just be another hodge-podge-mish-mash of style. I like things about each of these pictures, but would have no ideas where to start on our own house.

This guy needs a vase of cosmos on the counter

The wallpaper is terrible, and that vase looks dumb on that small table, but still.

So cozy and inviting. I love pine wood. Wait, is that what this is?

Carpet is terrible, but the rest I love.

This one really screams "I want to play boardgames with that girl!"

In the midst of this research I've decided that there are two things that can make any and every room automatically beautiful: light and flowers! For now, I'll stick with these two God given beauties to spiff up our house.

So the questions to you, my dear and wise friends, are: 
What is your favorite room in your house and why? 

And what is my design style?
Please. I'm dying to know.

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